Farming With the Wild 381thousand miles away in the Gulf of Mexico, as a result of industrial corn and soy-
bean production and concentrated animal feedlot operations (CAFOs), excess
nutrients draining through the Mississippi River have generated a 8500 square
mile dead zone of hypoxia, almost completely depleted of marine life (personal
communication from Fred Kirschenmann to the Wild Farm Alliance). Still, much
of the 130 million acres of corn and soybeans produced and consumed each year
in the US remains largely invisible, as it is heavily processed or fed to animals
before it reaches supermarket shelves and tables. For beef cattle, which evolved as
grass eaters, the heavy corn diet wreaks havoc on their digestive systems, necessitat-
ing increasing use of antibiotics to stave off illness and infections (Pollan, 2002).
While growing feed and hay to sustain animals through given periods is age old
wisdom, confining as many as 100,000 animals in a CAFO where they never see
the light of day, raises ethical questions on existential levels. According to Robert
F. Kennedy, Jr., ‘North Carolina’s hogs currently outnumber its citizens and pro-
duce more fecal waste than all the people in California, New York, and Washing-
ton combined’ (Kennedy, 1999, p66). Cattle production in the arid West is
ecologically problematic as well. Though long established across the western land-
scape, cows, particularly at commercial levels, are largely unsuited for dry and
fragile terrain, damaging creekbeds, harming soils, altering habitats and consum-
ing vast quantities of irrigated supplemental hay and feed. While a number of
contemporary initiatives to reform ranching impacts on arid lands are genuinely
attempting to enhance biodiversity, the long-term ecological compatibility of cat-
tle ranching in many arid regions remains in question.
In spite of this skewed land use system and other urgent ecological challenges,
with the proper incentives, assistance and resources, farmers can and should be
supported to manage their lands more sustainably, and profitably, while protecting
wildland values. A love of the land, a managerial presence in rural and remote
areas, years of experience, and a concern for native plants and animals are all com-
mon elements among farming communities. Practices such as pasture-based meat
production, diversifying land use (growing vegetables, melons, fruits and herbs as
well as field crops and animals, particularly for local markets), establishing wildlife
corridors along river systems, and protecting critical natural areas on and adjacent
to farms and ranches, have already shown great environmental and economic
promise. Models and examples of landowners, land trust organizations, govern-
ment cost-share and incentive programmes, third party ecolabels, wildlife moni-
toring groups, nonprofits and others working to achieve a compatible balance
between farming and ranching activities and the protection of the natural world
have emerged throughout the country in the past few decades.
A classic concept with a new vision
Farming with the wild is not a novel concept. 19th- and 20th-century American
literature is replete with prophetic philosophical works that attempted to reconcile
and redirect a civilization bent on the isolation or elimination of wildness from the